BRITISH spies are heading over to Africa to sniff out human traffickers behind the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Thousands of refugees are dying at the hands of criminal gangs exploiting their desperation to flee terror groups waging war on their homelands in Africa and the Middle East.

Those that manage the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea then try to settle in Europe, with many travelling over the continent in the hope of reaching British shores.

It has now been announced police and intelligence officers from the National Crime Agency, MI6 and GCHQ will head to North Africa to understand who the smugglers are and how they operate.

They will uncover the routes used from Libya and Tunisia during the £80million mission.

The decision to fund the programme was agreed by the Government yesterday at a National Security Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "We have got to do more to break the link between getting on a boat in the Med and getting settlement in Europe.

PA

Migrants are fleeing terrorist ridden nations such as Libya to reach Europe

They will exploit every opportunity to smash the gangs' criminal operations

Downing Street

"Otherwise these vast numbers will keep coming.

"The Government is setting up a law enforcement team to tackle organised immigration crime in the Med region.

"Officers will be deployed in the UK, the Mediterranean and Africa to pursue and disrupt these crime groups profiting from the people smuggling trade.

"They will exploit every opportunity to smash the gangs' criminal operations."

Despairing migrants pay their life savings to people smugglers in a bid to make it to Europe as an illegal immigrant.

They are crammed onto boats trying to make it across the Mediterranean to Italy and other parts of southern Europe.

Boats either sink or run out of fuel halfway through the crossing with thousands having already drowned this year.

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Thousands of African migrants have died or had to be rescued

The European Union recently restarted rescue efforts to pluck migrants from the sea, with the Navy's HMS Bulwark deployed to the region.

If refugees make it to souther Europe they are either detained, or flee border officials to continue their journey into other EU member states.

It is estimated more than 185,000 have arrived in Europe this year.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said the team would make sure that "we have the best possible intelligence picture" about the people smugglers.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today: "What they will be doing is tackling the flows of money, tackling the vessels that may have been used to transport people northwards.

"It's identifying, taking those vessels out of use. That's part of the programme, actually identifying where they may be vessels that may be being used, where there may be organised crime groups transferring people across Europe."

He said joint operations between northern European countries had already resulted in "disruptions", arrests and prosecutions of members of organised crime groups.

"Clearly there is more work that we need to do on that, but that is precisely what this fusion of National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and the Crown Prosecution Service is absolutely about," he added.